Ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings on the French coast are taking place in Normandy.

US President George W Bush and French President Jacques Chirac have both paid tribute to the heroes of D-Day, living and dead, in a memorial ceremony at the American cemetery and memorial at Colleville-sur-Mer.

In his address, Mr Chirac stressed the friendship between both the United States and France, and said his country would never forget.

"France will never forget," he said.

"I salute the memory and the sacrifice of all these fighters. They are now our sons also."

"To the entire American nation sharing this solemn moment with us, to all those men and women who paid the ultimate tribute of those heroic days, the message of France is a message of friendship and brotherhood - a message of appreciation and gratitude."

Mr Bush used his opening remarks to remember former US President Ronald Reagan, who died today at age 93.

"He was a courageous man himself and a gallant leader in the cause of freedom," Mr Bush said.

The US President then remember those who died in the D-Day landings.

"Men saw some images they would spend a lifetime preferring to forget," he said.

"One soldier carries a memory of three paratroopers dead and hanging from telephone poles, like a horrible crucifixion scene.

"All who fought saw images of pain and death, raw and relentless."

Mr Bush and Mr Chirac walked a US-French guard of honour at the start of the ceremony.

A 21-gun salute was fired out to sea from the cliff tops over Omaha Beach, where more than 2,000 US troops died as they stormed the sands at the start of the Allied landings.

The mournful strains of the Last Post rang out over the cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, the last resting place for more than 9,000 US troops.

The vast campaign to liberate Nazi-occupied France was dubbed Operation Overlord and hastened the collapse of Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship.

Five beaches along a 100-kilometres stretch of Normandy were targeted during the Allied invasion, but it was at Omaha that the casualties were the greatest with the US troops easy targets for the German guns perched on the cliffs above.

Juno Beach

In a separate ceremony at Juno Beach, Queen Elizabeth II paid tribute to the courage of Canadian and British troops who fought in the Normandy D-Day landings 60 years ago.

"The invasion of France in 1944 was one of the most dramatic military operations in history," she said.

"For a group of allies with little previous experience in co-operation, it was a major triumph.

"The operation itself was a resounding success, but it was only achieved with the sacrifice of many courageous and determined allied servicemen including a large number of your Canadian colleagues who landed here with you on Juno Beach.

"Britain had been directly threatened by the enemy, but you came across from the relative security of your homeland to fight for the freedom of Europe.

"Future generations of Canadians of every background will be able to look back with pride and admiration on the immense contribution which the Canadian Army, Navy and Air Force made to the liberation of Europe.

"The 60th anniversary of the Normandy landings is a moment of thanksgiving and a moment for commemoration.

"Today we honour all those who gave their lives in this campaign and all of you who fought in this great struggle."

It's a fundamental human yearning to be a part of something bigger than one's self, and maybe that's what drove my mate Ash to die, far from home, in a bloody foreign war against Islamic State, writes C August Elliott.